Backyard progress weekend #2

Which probably doesn't look much different compared to the previous weekend, but believe me, there was much digging, stone sorting and tossing going on.

I bought a flat bow rake for leveling and landscape weed fabric for tricking weed growth. A little ahead of the game; we (me) are a week away from that stage.  My phone is out of order (switched carriers and this is what I get, a nonworking phone???) so I couldn't call my nanny and her boyfriend for help. Boo.

Another pile of rubble and a deflated football. Where oh where is the air pump. The first HUGE pile was already taken away by the city! They were impressively quick. I put an ad on craigslist for "free clean fill" thinking the rubble would be sitting there for several weeks before the city came. I returned home that evening and the pile was gone. I did get a response to my craigslist posting, but it sounded more like a pick up line.

A collection of finely selected round rocks, salvaged from under the old concrete slabs, for the dry stream bed.

And a collection of bad rocks. Sorting rocks is my kind of task. Now if someone will come along and EMPTY the wheelbarrow for me, I can fill it up again. Where are you?

A huge pile of earth to raise the garden.

Some grass cuttings for compost and mulch for the soon to be raised garden.

And some edging.

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Math stuff
I discovered that I will need 80 BAGs of pea gravel.  @ 3.67 / bag that would be quite the extravagant pea gravel patio. I asked about torn bags, which are sold for half price, BUT that would take 9 years to collect enough bags for my 20x15 (300sq ft) patio area.  Unless the fork lift driver royally screws up. hmmmm.

It will also take me the better half of a year to transport 80 bags. I could order a pallet of pea gravel bags and pay $69 dollars for delivery. 

OR I can go the quarry route. I love a quarry...
 For 15x20 area (300 square feet) and 1.5 inches deep. 
I will need 1.64 yards of pea gravel (thanks to the calculator on the quarry website)

$37 dollars per yard (for gray stone; pink stone costs $42/yd)

$40-50 for delivery

For an approximate total of $105. And a lot of shoveling & hauling. Much closer to the amount of $$ I was planning to spend.

Guess we are making a trip to The Quarry. They have some big rocks for sale too which I need one or two for the dry stream bed.

Other costs:
Landscape fabric and rake: $0.00 aka free. I had earned 32 dollars @ Sears from Shop Your Rewards (when I bought a king size mattress last year)! Not the funnest stuff to reward yourself with, a grill would have been better. On the other hand it would have been hard to pass over cash for landscape / weed blocker fabric

Big helper Labor: $40.00
Little helper labor: $20.00 (Chaz hauled 7 loads of grass and dug another 7 wheel barrow loads worth of dirt.

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Source: sunset.com via Sara on Pinterest